The Riverton Community Cemetery hosted its annual Angels Among Us ceremony on Sept. 26 to pay tribute to and fondly remember the community’s loved ones.
Daniel Gudbjartson, chair of the Riverton Community Cemetery board, said this is the 17th year the cemetery has hosted the event. The board invites community members to get together for the evening, purchase a candle and place it on the grave of their loved one(s).
People arrived at the cemetery south of Riverton just as the sun was starting to set, bathing the grounds in a golden hue. People brought lawn chairs to listen to the formal part of the commemorative event before placing a candle on the graves of family members.
“We usually get about 50 to 100 people coming out,” said Gudbjartson. “We thank people for their support — the people who have done different things for the cemetery — and we sell candles that people can put on the graves. We also go over the list of burials.”
The event included reflection, shared experience and musical performances.
“We had a couple of performers do some songs and play the violin,” said Gudbjartson
The Riverton Community Cemetery is a Manitoba historic site and contains a monument to Sigtryggur Jonasson (Feb. 8, 1852 – Nov. 28, 1942), an Iceland-born immigration agent. Jonasson came to Canada in 1872 and was appointed by the Ontario government a few years later to serve as an immigration agent to bring settlers from Iceland to the New Iceland colony set up in Manitoba. He is considered to be the “father” of Icelandic settlement in Canada.
